Spanning organizational boundaries to manage creative processes: The case of the LEGO Group

In order to continue to be innovative in the current fast-paced and competitive environment, organizations are increasingly dependent on creative inputs developed outside their boundaries. The paper addresses the boundary spanning activities that managers undertake to a) select and mobilize creative talent, b) create shared identity, and c) combine and integrate knowledge in innovation projects involving external actors. We study boundary spanning activities in two creative projects in the LEGO group. One involves identifying and integrating deep, specialized knowledge, the other focuses on the use of external actors as a source of broad, not necessarily fully developed ideas. We find that the boundary spanning activities in these two projects differ in respect, among other things, of how the firm selects participants, formulates problems, and aligns the expectations of internal and external actors, and how knowledge is integrated across organizational boundaries. We discuss implications of our findings for managers and researchers in a business-to-business context.